Saturday, June 28, 2008

Bangladeshi fielders drop some catches and the match

Bangladesh played well today. On a flat batting wicket like this, some may argue whether 283 is competitive or not. I would say it is, as long as you back up the effort of the batsmen with tight bowling and sharp fielding. And don't forget this is the highest total for Bangladesh against India, by a long margin.

Kudos to Alok Kapali for playing such an innings. For the last few matches, I was filled with disgust whenever I saw Kapali coming out to bat. I don't know the reason, may be its his puffy look or it is that he wasted the talent he had. But today, it was all different. 10 fours and 5 sixes, fattafatti! And he did one thing Bangladesh is so unable to do- slogging in the last part of the innings. It was great to watch.

But all of the effort went in vain, largely for the drop-catches. Rayna was dropped twice and went on to score a ton, Gambhir also was dropped (that was a sitter!). These Indian players are in tremendous form and they hardly need a chance or two to rise to the occassion. Had the catches not been dropped, I believe it could be a tight match.

Bangladesh needs to carry on, taking the good things they learned from this match. I hope they will show some consistency in the next matches. No consistency in dropping-catches will be highly expected.